Repairing the Breach:

Fasting that Restores the Church

A Sermon

Rev. S. Randall Toms, Ph.D.

St. Paul’s Anglican Church

Baton Rouge, LA

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. (Isaiah 58:6-12)

Throughout the book of Isaiah, the prophet warned his people that, because of their wickedness, God would judge them and destroy their nation, but they refused to repent. Isaiah saw all of the destruction that was to follow, but he also gave some hope to the people. He said that if they fasted, God’s blessing would return to the people, and the nation would be rebuilt.

During this Lenten season, we place great emphasis on fasting. Perhaps you have decided this season to give up certain foods or engage in some other form of extraordinary discipline as we enter this period of self-examination, repentance, and intense prayer. Fasting is a discipline recommended by precept and example in both the Old and New Testaments. But Isaiah warns us that our fasting must go beyond external acts of devotion and sorrow for our past sins. The Lord tells us in Isaiah 58 that if we do not take these personal acts of devotion further, then our fast is not a fast that He is pleased with. He tells us that the fast He wants His people to observe is one of ministry to the poor and the oppressed. In other words, if our devotional acts do not result in good works, they become meaningless. James said that faith without works is dead. Faith without works is meaningless—actually, non-existent. If you have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, it will lead to good works. St. Paul wrote, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8–10). Indeed, we are not saved by our works. We are saved by grace, not by works. But St. Paul contends that if you have been saved by grace, God will work on you, fashioning you into someone filled with good works. The implication is clear: if your life is not filled with good works, you have no right to claim that you are saved by grace.

Now, in Isaiah 58, God tells us what kind of good works He wants to see in His people. In verse 6, He says that we should loose the bands of wickedness, undo heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke. All of these phrases have to do with unjust oppression. There may be a reference to slavery here. After the destruction by Babylon, the Jews released their slaves, but when they became prosperous again, they recalled them. Jeremiah rebukes them for this sin in his prophecy. Despite the suffering that the Jews had experienced, they were still oppressing people and treating others with injustice. So, the best fast is the fast of treating other people with decency, civility, fairness, and equality. In verse 9, the Lord says, “If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity.” Again, we see the commandment against oppressing other people. Still, there is also this strange prohibition against “putting forth the finger.” Even back in Isaiah’s day, making gestures with our fingers to show contempt for other people was not uncommon. What is forbidden is showing contempt and disrespect for other people, both in our behavior and even in our gestures. We also see Him forbidding “speaking vanity.” In this passage, speaking vanity probably refers to slander. This Lent, give your tongue a break. Let it rest during Lent. Zip your lips and put a bridle on your tongue. James said that if any man controls his tongue, he is a perfect man. As an act of self-denial this Lent, deny your tongue. That will be far more painful than giving up chocolate.

So, what fast does God want us to observe? He wants us to fast from hurting other people. Fast from hurting people by treating them unfairly, by treating them with contempt, and by slander, gossip, and ridicule. One reason God’s blessing is not on the church is that its members constantly talk about, criticize, and hurt one another. God will not bless a church where that is going on. So, this year, when you think of things to give up for Lent, give up hurting people with your words and your actions. If the Christian is oppressing others, if he is not working to see injustice stopped, then giving up food for a period of time is worthless. Fasting, prayer, and repentance are important, and they must come first. We can never love God or our fellow man as deeply as we should without engaging in these disciplines, but if those acts of devotion do not result in loving, just treatment of our fellow man, then they mean nothing.

But God not only wants us to fast from hurting other people; He also wants us to fast from our own selfish indulgence by giving of ourselves to help them. He says in verse 7 that the fast He wants to see is giving bread to the hungry, showing hospitality to the poor, clothing the naked, and refusing to ignore your brother in need—that is, do not hide yourself from your own flesh. In verse 10, He commands us to draw out our souls to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul.

These verses sound so much like our Lord’s words in Matthew 25. Perhaps our Lord had Isaiah’s words in mind when He said, “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me, I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” All of these acts of charity demand fasting. To do these things, we have to give up money and time.

I know that many people struggle to know how to obey these commandments, and we often feel guilty unnecessarily if we do not run an orphanage, engage in a prison ministry, or operate a halfway house for people with low incomes and for the homeless. But let me set your mind at ease a little and suggest that, in many ways, you are doing these things. We must remember that in biblical days there was no federal government or private agencies to help take care of the poor, the homeless, the disabled, or the aged. All of that responsibility fell on private individuals. Now, I’m not saying that if the church has the money and manpower to do those kinds of things, she shouldn’t. Thank God for churches that can minister to others in this way. But if our church can’t do this, and if you are not able to perform some of these various ministries, don’t feel that you are disobeying a biblical command.

You can fulfill these commands by working hard at a job and paying taxes. When Uncle Sam and the state take taxes out of your check, you should have the feeling, I am feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping the sick. Furthermore, you can give offerings, alms, or donations to organizations that are better equipped than the church to serve the homeless, the afflicted, and the aged. And of course, you can volunteer your time to help those kinds of agencies. So, don’t sell yourself short just because you don’t pick up every homeless person you see at the various red lights; that doesn’t mean you’re failing to keep the command to be hospitable. You are fulfilling this command in more ways than you know. And there are ways, through many of these various governmental and private agencies, that you can obey our Lord’s commands.

So, what is the fast that we should observe? Very simple. Stop hurting people. Do good for people by giving up your money, time, and talents for the sake of those in need, especially your fellow Christians. In one of the verses the Book of Common Prayer recommends for the offertory sentence, we read Galatians 6:10: “While we have time, let us do good unto all men; and especially unto them that are of the household of faith.” It is the duty of the Christian to do good to everyone, but we must especially take care of our own. After all, the passage we just read in Matthew 25 refers to feeding, clothing, and visiting Christians. Those verses are speaking of Christians, the brothers of Christ, who are poor, sick, and unjustly imprisoned. So, the fast God chooses is to give up hurting people, give up selfish indulgence, and do good for others.

Now, what will happen if we start doing these things? There are some amazing promises made to the people of God if we will begin to fast in this manner. One of the promises concerns light. In verse 8, we read, “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning.” The word translated “break forth” suggests something happening suddenly. In the city, we have the feeling that dawn arrives gradually, but if you have ever been in more mountainous areas, where not even trees obscure your view, it is amazing to watch the sun rise. It seems as though it just pops up suddenly over the horizon. Well, the Lord says that if we will fast in the way He has prescribed, our light will suddenly burst over the horizon.

In verse 10, the Lord says, “Then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday.” The word translated here as “obscurity” basically means “darkness.” The word was used to describe the extreme, deep plague of darkness that came over Egypt during the time of Moses. But it also referred to a spiritual, emotional, and moral darkness. In Isaiah 59:9, Isaiah writes, “Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.”

No one can doubt that we are living in a time of spiritual and moral darkness. The twentieth century, for all its marvelous technological and scientific advances, became morally and spiritually the Dark Ages. This darkness permeated the church and still obscures the glory of God from our sight. The church can say at this present moment, “We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.” But if we repent of our unkindness and cruelty toward one another and do good, then the darkness will be dispelled, and suddenly the church will be a source of light for the world once again.

Look at verse 10 once again, and you will see that the Lord promises that our darkness will be as the noonday. Now, the word that is translated as “darkness” here is a different word than the word translated as “obscurity.” This is the word used in Deuteronomy 28:29, when the Lord warns His people what will happen if they disobey His commandments: “And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways; and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.” This word is sometimes translated as “gloom.” For example, in Joel 2:2, we find this description of the day of the Lord: “A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness.”

We are living in a time when all serious-minded people feel gloomy. How can we help it when we see that our nation is ignoring God, living a life of immorality without any regard for the commandments of God? But the gloominess extends beyond the serious-minded, for even those who want to party 24 hours a day eventually crash, and a terrible sense of depression sets in when they realize the emptiness of such a life. In the church, there is a sense of gloom because we keep waiting for the light to dawn, but it doesn’t. But according to this promise, that sense of gloom can be dispelled if we fast from hurting people through our words and actions and spend our lives doing good. The darkness around us will vanish, and we will experience the glorious light of God’s presence, drawing people to Him to live in obedience to Him.

There are other promises here that I don’t have time to cover. Briefly, God promises that if we fast in this manner, all the wounds that we have experienced as a church will be healed. The glory of God will protect us, even from behind. Verse 8 says that God will be our “rearward.” In the common vernacular, God says, “I’ve got your back.” You keep moving forward, and I’ll protect you from any enemies who are trying to sneak up on you from behind. He promises in verse 11 that He will answer our prayers. Throughout Scripture, God threatens that if we hurt others and fail to do good, He will not hear our prayers. But if we repent of our sins, He says that when we cry out to God, pleading, “Lord, where are You?” He will reply, “Here I am.”

In verse 11, the Lord says He will guide us continually. In the ancient Middle East, very few things were more important than water. In verse 11, we have several promises that use the symbol of water. He will satisfy our souls when we are spiritually thirsty. He will make us a well-watered garden, and He will make us a spring of water, whose waters fail not. Our great desire for the church is that it would once again satisfy the spiritual hunger of those who are searching. The church could be a garden of sweet delights and precious rest if people would fast from hurting and criticizing one another. The church could be a spring of water if ministers would preach the Word of God. In our era, people are leaving the churches in droves because we have forsaken God, the fountain of living waters. No wonder, then, that people seek to have their thirst assuaged elsewhere. But if the church is what it should be, the lines we sing in the hymn “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken” would be true of the church:

See, the streams of living waters,

Springing from eternal love,

Well supply thy sons and daughters,

And all fear of want remove.

Who can faint when such a river

Ever will their thirst assuage?

Grace, which, like the Lord the giver,

Never fails from age to age.

Before I close, I want to mention one other promise given in this passage. In verse 12, we read, “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Paths to Dwell In.” As Isaiah looked forward through history, he saw the nation in ruins. The houses were destroyed, and the streets were cluttered with rubble. But the Lord promises that if we will fast in the manner He has prescribed, we can rebuild what was destroyed.

It is so sad to see so many of the grand, beautiful churches in Europe and America practically empty. In the REC, our churches must meet in homes, storefronts, warehouses, schools, hotels, banks, funeral chapels, and chamber-of-commerce buildings because what we are doing is rebuilding, and rebuilding doesn’t look pretty at first. It takes a lot of labor and patience, and when it is done, we still weep because our temple is not as glorious as the first temple. But this is what we have been called into the world to do.

Verse 12 describes exactly what our church is trying to do. We are trying to build once more on ancestral foundations. For generations, our Anglican fathers built us a solid foundation. How embarrassed they must be now to see what their glorious church has become! What was built on that wonderful foundation was wood, hay, and stubble, and the fire of modern life has destroyed it. We are going back to that foundation and building with gold, silver, and precious stones. We must go back to that foundation and build a structure on it in keeping with the glory of the foundation. Don’t make the mistake again of trying to build a structure based on compromise, making the Word of God palatable and relevant to modern man. We say with Jeremiah, “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jer. 6:16). That is the only way to be truly relevant, for it is only the preacher who preaches to man as a sinner who desperately needs Christ that is relevant.

In the years to come, when people look at the history of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, how would we want people to describe us? I want people to be able to call our church “The Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Paths to Dwell In.” I know that is a lofty ambition for such a small handful of people as we are, but Christ started with twelve. With that lofty goal in mind, I pray that every single member of this church is thoroughly committed to it and would not even entertain for a second the possibility of leaving it, so that all of us here might be part of repairing the breach and restoring the paths. At present, the walls have been breached, and the church lies in ruins. But we can rebuild the walls on that old, solid foundation that was laid for us by the Church Fathers. Right now, the old streets are cluttered with ruins, and no one can live there nor find rest for their souls. But we can be the restorers of paths to dwell in.

What a wonderful picture of hope we have in these verses, but the hope will come to fulfillment only by proper fasting. The physical fast we observe during Lent is only a means to moral fasting, which shows the world that we truly put into practice what we say we believe. If the church will fast, both physically and morally, one day we will be able to sing not the sad song of the Psalmist, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept.” Instead, we will be able to sing, “Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God.” Amen.